Contents

Biography

Harold is the bully of the group, even though his bark is usually worse than his bite. He is somewhat overweight and unintelligent, he's 13 years old and a few years older than the rest of the cast because he was held back a grade in school a couple times, saying that he didn't apply himself. Harold is also known to eat a lot, as exhibited in "Weighing Harold," in which he puts on an enormous amount of weight.

In "Harold the Butcher", it is revealed that Harold has a deep love for meat products. Harold's distinctive features are his considerable stomach and giant misshapen tooth. In some episodes, Harold has yellow eyes, although they're white in the show's opening. He is usually seen with Stinky and Sid.

Harold is portrayed as something of a backstabber: One day, he's the characters' ally, but then the very next day, he teases them and bullies them. Harold often gloats of his own intellectual or physical superiority, though usually seconds later, he proves himself wrong or is shown up by another character. Despite his frequent posturing, he is also easily frightened and/or upset and frequently cries for his mommy (among other things) while running away or wanting to escape from a situation. Harold also has a budding relationship with Patty Smith. He is of the Jewish faith, as revealed when he invited the other students/friends to his Bar Mitzvah (his Hebrew name is Chaim). This was not originally the case as he appears in a Christian church in the early claymation short "Arnold Escapes From Church".

Although Harold is portrayed as tough, he occasionally shows a more sensitive side (though he denies it in public). He may also not be as unintelligent as he leads himself to believe. His attendance at the fourth grade, despite his age of 13 years, appears to be strange due to various facts: Harold is seen during several flashbacks dealing with kindergarten events of Arnold's age-group. Being in the same preschool class with the other kids, Harold had to be held back from kindergarten. Considering that Harold might be in fact highly intelligent, this seems to be even more implausible. Others seem to take his age in stride while they make a big deal about Torvald being a 4th grader, even though he's the same age as Harold. In "The Aptitude Test", an accidental mix-up in test results suggests he may be a genius (rather than Helga, who got his pathetic test scores in exchange), resulting in him striving to remain true to this fact. However, neither before, nor after the events of this episode, does Harold show any outstanding intellectual skills.

Relationships

It's implied that Harold may have a soft spot for 6th grader, Patty Smith. They became close friends in the episode "Hey Harold!" and it continued up to the episode "April Fool's Day". However, at one point, they become rivals in an arm wrestling contest in the episode, "Harold vs. Patty". These episodes also show his true potential.

It's also implied that Harold could be romantically interested in Rhonda. In the episode "Operation Ruthless", Rhonda is seen pulling Harold to the Love Tunnel's boat while saying, "I know you like me, Harold!" as he tried to resist. Then, in "Love And Cheese", for a brief second, when Arnold and Lila walk to the Tunnel of Love, you can see Harold and Rhonda sitting together in the swan boat.

In "Egg Story", Rhonda and Harold are assigned as a couple to take care of an egg. Harold reminds her of their moment in Operation Ruthless (Or possibly Love and Cheese), but Rhonda tries to keep him quiet about it. The egg experience ended with Harold frying the egg and trying to rejoin the shell. Rhonda first got mad, but then forgave Harold when she realized how hard he tried to put the pieces back together, and the two shared a meaningful look.

For the most part, Harold tends to pal around with Stinky and Sid. The trio often cause trouble, which always

Harold, Stinky, and Sid in disguises from the episode "On The Lam"

results in either them or another character dealing with consequences of their actions. Because of this, several episodes are based around the trio's antics, most notably in "Full Moon", when the trio decide to moon Principal Wartz, only to have Arnold almost take full responsibility for their actions.

Trivia

In some episodes, Harold's outer shirt has a red "H" on it, but in other episodes, it's just a plain blue shirt.

Usually, when Harold apologizes in the later parts of Hey Arnold!, the song "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci plays. Possibly because the music was used for his song "Big Ugly Clown-o!" in What's Opera, Arnold?.

Harold is voiced by Justin Sheankrow, who voiced Eddie from Lloyd in Space and several minor characters on Recess. Lloyd in Space and Recess are both shows that the creator, Craig Bartlett has made.

He is similar to Binky Barnes, a character from Arthur. They both started as bullies at the start of the series and later, as friends of the hero. They are held back at school. Also, Binky and Harold look similar.

As we all know from "Harold the Butcher" on Season 3 of Hey Arnold, Harold loves meat. Upon that episode, Harold got to be Mr. Green's apprentice. It is implied that Harold may regularly work at the butcher shop on Mondays after school.

In the pilot and original comics, Harold wore a red striped shirt and a crown that strongly resembled the one that Jughead from Archie Comics always wore.